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Help setting up a base for learning to slap.


Naetharu
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Hi folks,

I'm keen on putting in some time and effort to build up my slapping skills. I've got a spare bass (my 'back up' for gigs) which I would like to set up to be optimal for this kind of playing. Its an Ibanez SR-300. Could anyone experienced in slap playing suggest which string gauge/brand/type would be best and any other tips that I might use to get the bass suited to slapping.

All the best

James

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I would have thought the Harley Benton in your sig would be the perfect bass to slap on.
I'm no expert but I would have though a normally set up bass would work with non super heavy strings... you just kinda hit it with your thumb, wonder why it sounds so bad, look up some videos of people teaching slap, keep trying, it still doesn't sound great... and then eventually you are practicing and realise it sounds right!

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I go for a pretty straight neck, low action and a set of light top/medium bottom strings.
I use D'addario XLs.

There's a lot of technique involved though.
I realised that I'd not been pressing hard enough with my left hand to stop the lateral movement of the string and I was putting the action too high to compensate for that.

I have high action and medium strings all the way down on my own bass and you can slap fine as long as you keep the string still with the left hand

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Roundwounds (steel or nickel), cut the mids and/or boost the bass and treble (not unlike the mid-scoop sound you get with both pickups on a Jazz) and say a compressor to even out the slaps/pops. Having said that you'll see slap experts get great sounds out of lots of different basses regardless of how they're set up and what they're playing through so the main ingredient really is technique.

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[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1450014322' post='2928762']
I would have thought the Harley Benton in your sig would be the perfect bass to slap on.
I'm no expert but I would have though a normally set up bass would work with non super heavy strings... you just kinda hit it with your thumb, wonder why it sounds so bad, look up some videos of people teaching slap, keep trying, it still doesn't sound great... and then eventually you are practicing and realise it sounds right!
[/quote]

The Harley Benton is strung with heavy gauge flat-wounds and it's quite low output - it seems to lack the kind of attack that I hear in a lot of good slap playing. The Ibanez SR-300 seems to do a really nice slap sound - probably because it has a lot hotter pick-ups than the Harley Benton I guess.

I'll certainly give a go at popping some super bright slinky strings on and seeing how it goes. Cheers for the tips folks :D

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